


A Kiss of Thanks

by ParisianPatate



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Culture Shock, Gen, Help, MerMay, Relationship(s), Sirens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:21:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24135778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParisianPatate/pseuds/ParisianPatate
Summary: Three of our favorite Vesuvians help an injured mermaid.A little one-shot I wrote for #MerMay2020.
Relationships: Asra & Julian Devorak & Nadia, Asra/Julian Devorak
Kudos: 23





	A Kiss of Thanks

I am in so much pain. 

The ugly land-walkers peer at me through the glass while I am tied up and anchored to the floor. I cannot swim, and if I could, I barely have enough energy left for it. My tail wound is open and infected. It will kill me, I can feel it. 

How could they? The humans sent a spike right through me and pulled me onto their vile ship. 

And now I am in this dimly-lit and disgusting place. I believe they do trade here. They are trying to trade me, a sentient being capable of reasoning and communicating. I can speak their language too, but I will not give them that knowledge. The words will die with me.

I hate them. They are a disease on this planet. Putrid and foul, they populate and consume with no consideration for us. The rest of us, the remaining and the original inhabitants of the earth. 

“You sir, are you interested?” There’s that ugly voice from that ugly man that has been bartering with passerbys for hours. I open my eyes slightly, though my head hurts from the effort. I am immediately struck by the grey irises of the human gazing in at me. 

He doesn’t look intrigued. Only sad. That’s different from the others. 

I close my eyes, unable to keep them open any longer. I drift into sleep.

***

The whole tank vibrates and I jolt awake. I am being moved. The ugly man got his price, then. The tank is placed into a contraption on wheels attached to horses. They are at the mercy of these savages too.

Before the door closes, two new faces appear in front of me. A flash of violet and white sit on their heads. “I know just the place,” says the white one.

My vision is too blurry. I cannot see the details of my new captors. The light of the sun hurts my eyes too much. I slumber again, hoping for reprieve.

***

I am no longer in water. I can feel the air on my skin as I come to consciousness. I also feel an unfamiliar hand on my wound. I quickly thrash around.

“Ooof!” A man cries out as I slam my tail into his torso. That blow must have winded him, but he holds onto my tail firmly, preventing me from going for another one. He pants from the effort. The soft light around us catches the auburn color of his hair. He looks at me. “Please don’t be startled, I am trying to help.” 

Should I believe him? I want to. I recognize he was the sad man that gazed at me with sympathy. His touch is tender and invites me to trust, but I don’t know if I can. Can these humans be capable of good, just as they are capable of atrocious? 

“Darling, can you please try some magic on this?” the man asks. From the shadows appears the white-haired face from before. He makes uneasy eye contact with me as he kneels down. 

“May I?” he asks, his hand hovering over the wound.

I guess I have nothing to lose. I do not respond, but I stay completely still. Tentatively, his hand settles on my tail. When he does not feel hostility from me, his gaze drops tand he concentrates. I feel a tingling sensation come from his palm. It isn’t unpleasant.

My eyes wander to the place around us. We are in a beautiful cave. I can feel the magic course through its walls. To my left, I see a vibrant pond. I feel the power coming from its depths. 

The tingling sensation stops and white-hair pulls his hand away, shaking his head. “I don’t know their biological make-up. Anything I am doing is completely impotent.”

Both look heavily disappointed. Auburn hair sighs, but at seeing the downheartedness of his companion, he perks up. He places his hand behind white-hair’s head and leans over, placing his lips to his. When he breaks away, he speaks. “Thank you for trying.”

That’s an interesting gesture. I may know some of their language, but I do not understand what all of their words and movements mean. This is the first time I have ever been so close to humans. 

Another figure steps out from the depths of the darkness, tall and purple-haired. That’s who else I saw in my haze, then. “I am sorry I was held up. I had to send the carriage back to the palace. How is it coming along?”

The humans at my tail shake their heads. The smaller white-haired one speaks. “No luck, but I think the pool will help. Its magic may heal them.” 

***

These specific humans are not so bad. They come to me everyday while I await here. The white-haired one, who I learned is called “Asra”, is good company. Before I spoke to the three of them, he would sit at the side of the pool and whisper to me things about their world. He was right about the pond. I feel stronger with each passing day that I reside in it. 

The larger man, Julian, brings many tinctures to heal my injury. He checks on me with every visit. He seems almost more relieved than I am at my steady healing.

Nadia may be my favorite human, though. She is the one that brings me all the fish. Plus, her mellow demeanor is immensely comforting to me. She also has beautiful flowing hair. It makes me envious. I miss my own. When I am floating by the side of the pool one day, admiring it, she catches me. 

“Sorin, what is it?” she asks, laughing a little under my intent scrutiny. Yes, I told these humans my name too. That is all I can offer them for their kindness. 

I am slightly taken aback, and nervously run my hands through my short locks. “I am sorry. I am admiring your hair. I miss mine terribly.”

Asra is sitting behind her, drawing on something, but stops as he gazes at me along with her. “What happened to your hair?”

I darken. “Those disgusting men cut it off. They spoke of gold and profit, of ‘indestructible rope’. They did not care that a siren’s hair is indicative of a whole lifetime. We do not cut it, not ever.” Both look struck by the news. I sigh and compose myself. “But what is hair, if the lifetime is over? I am still alive. My hair was a meager sacrifice.”

Asra goes back to his drawing. I wonder what he is doing? I see him glance at me every once in a while. Nadia runs her fingers through her tresses absentmindedly. I would love to feel long locks of hair in my hands again. 

“Nadia,” I begin, pulling her from her thoughts. “May I braid your hair?” 

She is surprised by my request, but nods, a small smile to her lips. I know what the humans mean by that gesture. It means “yes”. I pull myself out of the pool and sit behind her, the tips of my fin brushing the surface of the water. I carefully brush my fingers through the strands. This is so familiar, and so therapeutic. It makes me think of tending to my siblings. It makes me think of home. I miss them.

“I have to warn you, my hair is very particular,” Nadia says before me.

I snort. “You have never come in contact with siren hair. This beast will be much easier to tame.” I smooth and braid and tuck in strands this way and that. This feels… wonderful. 

While I do so, I still see Asra working. My curiosity has gotten the better of me. “Asra, what are you doing?”

He smiles. “I’m almost done.” He stands up and walks over, holding a piece of parchment in front of me. 

I scan my eyes over the drawing. The figure has short hair and a tail just like mine. I look up at him in surprise. “Is that me?” He nods. I gape at the image slightly. “Is that what I really look like?” 

Nadia looks over her shoulder to observe it. “Yes, the drawing is quite accurate.”

I am dazzled. “I have never seen myself before.” I feel both of them freeze. 

“You’ve never..?” Asra trails off.

I shake my head. I learned that gesture from them too. “There are not many reflective surfaces in the sea, and no one has ever made a portrait for me.” I break my eyes away from the image and fix his. “Thank you, Asra.” I see his eyes light up at my words.

In a matter of minutes, I am finished with Nadia’s hair. She runs her hands over it, then chuckles. “That was done in record time, and more artfully than ever before. Are you sure you don’t want to work for me at the palace?” She turns to face me.

I laugh in response. I reach down and pluck a flower to gently place it behind her ear. _“A flower for a flower.”_

At hearing me speak Prakran, Nadia is enchanted. “ _You speak my language?”_

_“Some. Like all the languages from the Emerald Sea to the Strait of Seals.”_

_“How could you tell where I am from?”_

_“I simply could.”_

Asra settles back down on the floor and begins shading in the image. I slip back into the pool and reach my hand out to touch Nadia’s hair for the last time. Echoing footsteps come rushing into the cave.

It’s Julian back from his day out. “Sorry, sorry, sorry. I got held up and had to take a detour and - WOAH!” He slips on the slick cave floor and tumbles to the ground.

Nadia and Asra start giggling at his red face. “Have you never heard not to run on wet floors?” Asra asks. “Silly boy.”

My eyes widen. Boy? This I do not understand. “What is ‘boy’?”

The red fades from his cheeks as Julian rights himself and looks at me, interested. “Uh... well, I’m a boy.”

My eyes narrow as I think. “But what _is_ it?”

I see small smiles come to the lips of the three humans sitting around me.

“Well, boy is... the opposite to girl. That’s what Nadia is. It’s how we categorize humans sometimes.”

I am still… confused. “Sometimes?” 

“It doesn’t apply to everyone.”

Now I’m really confused. “What makes someone a boy or a girl?” I ask.

“Well…” Nadia attempts to respond now. “People used to consider it aligned with biology and reproductive organs. But now it is based on how people feel inside of themselves. In their hearts.”

My mind is still racing at this new information. “But how do you feel like a boy or a girl? What is the difference?” 

I see Asra’s smile widen as he continues shading my portrait. Nadia and Julian both look at each other and shrug. I know that gesture. That means the humans are unsure. They cannot respond to my question, then. 

“What a strange concept,” I remark. “We do not have such a thing in my culture. Plus, I am not of reproductive age or high enough social status. I could not even use _that_ criteria to know for myself.”

Asra stops shading and looks up at me, his smile plastered to his lips. “What an exceptionally advanced society.”

I consider him now. “Asra, what are you?”

“I am someone that isn’t categorized.” Ah. So he is outside of the ‘sometimes’.

“I guess I must be that then, too.”

He smiles. “It looks like it.”

I think again, still intrigued. “Can I feel your hearts? To see if I sense a difference?”

They look at each other and laugh. Julian is the first to kneel closest to the pool. I pull myself halfway out and place a hand over his heart. A strong and steady pulse. It is very comforting. I like to feel its movement. I place my ear to his chest now, and I hear the steady thumping. I feel him shake slightly as he holds in laughter. It isn’t mean. They are intrigued, just as I am intrigued by them. 

Once I have finished, I move to Nadia, who is sitting serenely to his right. It feels and sounds… the same. Just a little faster, but equally comforting. Asra sets himself beside her and I do the same. 

Once I have finished studying them, I slide back into the pool. “Ah, I see. I can feel a difference.”

They all look at me in surprise. “You can?” Nadia and Julian ask at the same time. 

I sink all the way down to my chin before smirking up at them. “No.”

The three of them laugh in surprise. Asra speaks. “Sorin, was that a joke? I thought you didn’t know how.”

I love when they laugh. It makes me feel warm inside. “I am learning many things.”

***

I have healed. My body is strong again. It is time to say goodbye, though I am sad to leave them.

At night, they slip me out of the cave and bring me to the sea. Nadia is the first to carry me, but she eventually tires on the long walk, and switches out with Julian. They are both very strong. I know my tail is heavy. 

The second I touch the sea again, I can feel my pod. They have not migrated as far as they should have. Have they been waiting for me? Can they feel I am coming home? I feel the call to join them. But before I leave…

I turn to my three saviors as they stand beside me. They are all ankle-deep in the water, gazing out into the night. “You not only saved me, but you have also shown me that good can exist within humans. I would like to thank each of you individually for your kindness and companionship.”

Julian is the closest, so I reach up and grab his hand, indicating for him to lean down. He does so. I place my hand behind his head and bring my lips to his. “Thank you,” I say as I pull away. 

Immediately, I feel I blundered. His face is visibly red, even under the moonlight. I release him and he backs away before falling to his knees in shock.

I hear Asra roaring with laughter beside him. “I better be getting one too!” he exclaims.

“Wha- is this not an expression of gratitude for you?” I ask, slightly flustered at the unexpected twist of events. I know what I observed in the cave. In that context, this makes sense.

When Asra calms his howling, he looks at me kindly. “It can be… but it usually means something much more intimate.” He approaches me and sits eagerly, mischief in his eyes. “Julian can’t be the only one to have kissed a mermaid. That would be unfair.”

I laugh. So, I did blunder. But it doesn’t matter. Not with their kind hearts. I place my hand behind his head and bring my lips to his as well. 

When I pull away, he licks his lips. “Salty,” he says before chuckling. Pulled from his stupor, Julian comes over to sit beside him in the water, taking his hand. I see their laughing eyes meet. 

“In my culture, we have a different gesture to say thank you, but we use it on everyone,” I explain. “I did not think of why before, but it must be because we are all very close. Just like family.”

“May I receive that as a means of thanks?” Nadia asks. I turn to her. She is still standing, bunching her dress up above the water with her hands. 

I smile. “Of course.” She steps toward me. I reach both of my hands up to her and she leans down into them. When I clasp them behind her head, I place my forehead to hers. “ _Vraday, mthya iso vral,”_ I say softly. I hold her there for a moment, eyes closed and breathing in sync with her. When I finally release her and we part, I translate. “My thanks comes from the heart.” 

“I’ve changed my mind.” Asra says from behind me. “I want that instead.” 

I turn to him. “I already thanked you. Talk about unfair.”

He shrugs, smiling. I run my eyes over the three of them, taking in their gentle features, committing them to memory. I softly peel three scales off of my tail and place one in each of their hands. “When I am close, if you touch this to the sea, you will be able to feel me.” When I have finished, I look back into each of their warm faces. “Until we meet again.”

I turn and swim away. I am going home. My heart swells at that prospect, but I know it will ache whenever I think of their kind faces under the moonlight. 

_Vraday, mthya iso vral._


End file.
